A little blogging break

My world is a bit topsy-turvy right now (that's the G-rated description). Quite a bit of crapola going on at the moment, so I might not be blogging for awhile, at least until I can stop the downward spiral and regain my equilibrium.

Work is great though, and the kids are all healthy and coping. A few update bullets:

- Gabi's cross-country season has gone well, they have Far East finals at Misawa, about 400 miles north of here, next weekend. She's enjoying ROTC where she's the Public Affairs Officer.

- Meg got the first half (top) of her braces last month, she's done really well and her teeth already look so much better! She started cheerleading a few days ago, something she's been wanting to do for a while.

- Ethan moves to an English pre-school tomorrow. I'm so sad to move him from his yochien, he loves it and his sensei so much. When I told his sensei he'd be leaving she actually cried! And it turns out he ONLY speaks Japanese at school!!!!! You could have knocked me over with a feather when I heard that! His sensei says he actually won't respond if she speaks to him in English! I'm so happy! I've bought tons of Japanese DVDs and books (Gabi and Meg can both read hiragana and katakana, so they can read all of his books to him) so hopefully he'll retain some of it. I'd love to get him into a Japanese playgroup.

Now that I'm working there's just no way he could stay at the yochien, where of course they follow the Japanese school and holiday schedule, which isn't even remotely close to the American school and holiday schedule, which is what we follow on base. Another bonus is that his new school is less than 1/2 mile from my office, his yochien is about 15 miles in the opposite direction (which equates to at least a 30 min drive here in Japan). Plus, I've blogged before about how worried I was that he'd be really far behind his American peers when he starts kindy next year, and this new school has a really great academic program. So, with a heavy heart, I decided it was best to switch him to this new school that just opened last month.

- Work is great, I'm learning lots of new stuff, and it's all very interesting. One thing I love about the Department of Defense is that they spend A LOT of money on training, so I'll be going to lots of classes, conferences and workshops on their dime, to help me learn about support agreements, international business/relations and other aspects of my job, which is something I'll be able to take with me wherever I go. Work is my escape now, I stay pretty busy, so for those 8 or so hours I can just forget what's going on with the rest of my life. My co-workers are a pretty fun bunch of guys, so they keep me laughing, which is always a good thing. As you can imagine in an office full of only men, there's lots of burping, farting and cussing going on, but they try to be mindful of my "feminine sensibilities". Yeah, right, LOL! Wonder what they'd do if I just ripped a big one? It's actually kind of liberating to be able to let loose with a "What the F$@# ????" every now and again without having to worry about little ears or horrified gasps!

- I took the kids to Disneyland and DisneySea last week, we had a great time, but it was crazy crowded! We'll definitely have to go back again on a day that isn't so insane, like a Tuesday or Wednesday during a non-holiday season.

- I'm hoping to visit Sorbi in Osaka again this month (she came up with her family in Sept while Rob was here, and we went down to her house for 3 days. Still haven't gotten around to blogging about all that). We're planning to drive to Obama, just because it's......well, a town called OBAMA!!!!

Guess that's about it. Hope everyone had a happy Halloween!